


This Time We Have

by icarus_chained



Category: The Breed (2001)
Genre: Detectives, Humans, Injury, Love, Mortality, Multi, Partners to Lovers, Partnership, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Movie(s), Sexuality, Threesome - F/M/M, Trust, Vampires, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 08:12:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11398605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: Post-movie. When Detective Steven Grant is injured on the job yet again, neither his partner nor his girlfriend take it well, and maybe for more similar reasons than he thought. Beyond the fact that they're immortal and he's not, it turns out that Aaron's feelings are closer to Lucy's than Steve imagined. And, just maybe, they can find a way to work with that.





	This Time We Have

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how many of you have seen [this movie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNQbjac-7l4), but if you haven't, I really do recommend it. It's incredibly 90s (well, 2001, but still), but I love it. A noirish, vaguely communist alternate universe where things seem to have gone different after WWII, and a police detective who after his partner's murder stumbles into a world of vampires trying to come out into the open. And gets fairly damn attached to two of them in particular, after a LOT of anger and suspicion (and murder) along the way. I watched it again last night, because my mother had never seen it, and apparently a few thousand words of OT3 resulted?

"You're lucky, you know. A little bit further to the right, and it wouldn't be a crease at the hairline we'd be talking about. Cutting it a little fine, weren't you, Detective?"

Steve grimaced, regretting it a second later as it pulled at the row of fresh stitches across his scalp. The gloved hands putting in those stitches pressed harder in censure, and the doctor glared down at him, distinctly unimpressed. Steve did his best to keep his forehead still while fixing a matching expression on his face.

"Luck had nothing to do with it," he muttered quietly. "My partner getting the drop on the guy from behind, _that_ had something to do with it. I'm fine, okay? It's just a scratch. Scalp wounds just bleed like a bitch, that's all."

"Really," Doctor Sanders drawled. "All those years of medical school, I never would have guessed. Now, don't get these wet for 48 hours and do us all a favour? Try not to get shot again any time soon. Paperwork's a bitch."

Steve snorted. "Yeah, sure. You're all heart, you know that?"

"I'm all paperwork, is what I am," the doc corrected blandly, heading over to wash his hands. "Get the hell outta my surgery already, will you? And drag that partner of yours out as well. He's scaring the receptionists."

Which was, Steve admitted, likely true. Aaron had been weird all day. All week, even. He'd think it was the blood, but he'd seen the man under a helluva lot more provocation than _that_. He really did need to drag the man out and figure out what the hell was up with him lately. You know. After getting his head stitched back together and all.

Ah hell. The joys of partnership, huh? Damned moody bastard.

He scooped up his coat on the way out, tucking it over one elbow while he did his best to straighten his tie. There was blood on his collar, he knew, scalp wounds really _did_ bleed like a bitch, but there wasn't a lot he could do about that just yet. He just hoped it wouldn't bother the guy too much. He didn't need the bastard flying off the second they got out the doors. He wanted a _conversation_ here.

Aaron was leaning stiffly against the grey tiled wall when he stepped outside the surgery. He had his arms crossed, his hands digging into the opposite arms. The lady on reception had retreated back behind her desk, a burly nurse looming warningly beside her. Aaron was pointedly ignoring them both. They were equally pointedly glaring daggers at the side of his head. The whole waiting room was the kind of tense you usually got during armed stand-offs. Well hell. Guess it was a good job the doc had been quick, then, wasn't it?

"Hey partner," he said, giving up, pulling the tie all the way off, and starting to retie it as he moved with deliberate calm across the room. "Sorry about the wait. Had to get bitched out for generating paperwork for a while first. You good to go?"

Aaron stared at him for a second. Pretty damned intensely, his eyes skimming across the row of stitches and down to the splotches of dried blood on his collar. He didn't say anything for a second. He did lean up off the wall, though, and reach over to bat Steve's hands gently aside and fix his tie for him. That was probably a good sign, right?

"I've made a preliminary report," he said, in that soft, precise way of his. "You won't have to make one until tomorrow. We should get you home. You need a change of clothes."

_We_ should get you home, Steve noted. Excellent. He'd get at least a car ride out of this, then. "Lead the way," he said, gesturing with the arm still holding his coat. "A chance to save the paperwork until some other day? I'm all about that."

Aaron squinted at him for a second, reflexive suspicion for his bland and eager tone. Paranoid bastard. He nodded, though, and turned to follow Steve out of the building. Okay. Great. Let's keep this up just long enough to get in the car. _Then_ he could corner the man, ask him what the hell was going on.

He let Aaron drive. Well, he didn't have a lot of choice, with the lingering threat of concussion. He probably would have anyway, though. Let the man have a bit of control, and a bit of a distraction, too. Then maybe he wouldn't feel compelled to clam up or jump out of the car along the way.

He let them drive the first little bit in silence, though. Partly because he had a headache. Partly because he wasn't sure what the hell he was gonna _ask_. After a couple of minutes, though, there was nothing for it but to go for broke.

"You okay, man?" he asked, looking sidelong at the guy, vaguely thankful that the blood and stitches were facing towards the window. "You've been kinda jumpy lately. And I don't just mean tonight, either, though that was pretty spectacular. There something you feel you wanna tell me?"

Aaron glanced at him, for a bare second, and then fixed his eyes very firmly back on the road. A muscle ticked in his jaw. It didn't look like he was gonna be opening up any time soon. That was okay. Steve could wait.

They were almost up the driveway to Lucy's house before his partner finally broke down. He put the car in park, both eyes still fixed straight ahead, both hands locked on the wheel. He was chewing it over something fierce. Steve could see that. That was all right. Like he said, he was patient. He was getting to the bottom of this one way or another.

"I'm not the only one who has been 'jumpy' lately," Aaron said at last. Slowly, angrily, chin tilting up in challenge even while he refused to look Steve's way. Steve's eyebrows took a hike up his abused forehead. Aaron grit his teeth and carried on. "This isn't the first time in the last few weeks you've almost been killed. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were getting reckless."

Steve's eyebrows climbed _all_ the way up at that. Which, ouch. Maybe not the best plan. Hell with that, though!

"Reckless," he repeated flatly. "You think I'm getting reckless? You do remember our entire first case together, right? I ain't _getting_ nothing!"

Aaron turned there. That flash of temper and that flash of _teeth_. Whoo boy. Hadn't seen that one in a while. His arms stayed locked, though, the whole rest of his body kept forcibly immobile. All the self-control in the damned world, Aaron. Steve could vouch for that _personally_. Looked like it was fraying a bit now, though.

"You think that's a point in your favour?" the man hissed. For real hissed. Vampire style. Steve ignored that easily. "I thought that was a product of circumstance. Being introduced to our world, the loss of your partner. I did not think it was a permanent facet of your personality!"

"Yeah?" Steve growled. "Well, you shoulda done! Come on, man! You read my file back to front, didn't you? Anyway, we been working together a while now, and it's never bothered you before. What's been eating you lately?!"

Aaron's face twisted, the wheel creaking under his hands. For a second there, Steve thought he might actually get an answer. Then Aaron snapped his head back around. Then he stared back out at the goddamned road, and made like the entire conversation hadn't happened. Goddamn it. Steve _hated_ it when he did that.

"You should get inside," the man said stiffly. "Lucy will be waiting for you. You should get cleaned up. Get some rest. I'll see you in the morning."

Steve clenched his jaw. Thought about fighting it out some more. He knew that look on the man's face, though. He wasn't going to get diddly squat tonight, except maybe a busted car door if he pushed the man any further. God fucking damn it. _Fine_.

"All right," he said, growling the words out between his teeth. He raised a hand, stabbed a finger in Aaron's direction. "This ain't over, though. You come back tomorrow, we're having words, you and me. Maybe by then you'll have loosened up enough to give me a damned answer."

"I wouldn't count on it," Aaron muttered. Under his breath, but audible. Hackles all the way up, Steve genuinely thought about making an issue out of it. Came down to it, though, his head was too damned sore for this shit right now. Tomorrow was goddamned soon enough.

"Tomorrow," he said tightly, and slammed the car door behind him. Not enough to damage it. _He_ wasn't a goddamned vampire in a snit. Aaron drove off without a word, expression fixed and rigid until he looped the drive and got too far away for a puny mortal's sight. Fucking bastard. What the _fuck_ was up with him lately?

Damn, but his head ached. He brought up a hand, rubbed gingerly at the eyebrow underneath the line of stitches. He needed a drink. Not even wanted, _needed_. Neither Aaron nor Lucy would forgive him if he had one, though. Which might be reason enough to try it, in Aaron's case right now, but he'd no plans to be sleeping on any couch tonight either. Which Lucy would have absolutely no problems ensuring. So. Painkillers and sleep it was.

Lucy was waiting for him when he got in. So was the panther, but he was getting used to that. He saluted it wryly, and looked up to find Lucy looking expressionlessly down at him. Her face was about as rigid as Aaron's had been. Aw hell. _Really_? 

"Not you too," he sighed, finding a stone bench right there in the hall and sinking into it. "Is this some vampire thing, huh? You guys got like a time of the month or something?"

"Not really," she said, sweeping down towards him. The panther nudged her hand lightly as she passed. Fucking traitor. "Maybe we're both just concerned. Presuming that you meant Aaron, of course?"

Steve snorted darkly. "Yeah, I meant Aaron. Man's so locked up right now you could use him to hang a clothesline off. I didn't think you were gonna be as well. What's going on around here? Did I do something to piss you both off or what?"

She reached him. Reached for him. She cupped her palm softly around his cheek. Drifted it upwards, the tip of her finger skimming lightly beneath the line of stitches. He blinked up at her. Whatever the fuck was lurking behind her expression right now, he didn't recognise it. She brought both hands down to his shoulders, her thumbs brushing against his jaw. She leaned down and kissed him, gently, on the forehead. And then held there, trembling fiercely. He sat there, his hands in his lap, and wondered what the actual hell was going on.

"... You have to forgive Aaron," she said finally, leaning back from him a little bit. She found her smile again, fixed it soft and secretive to her face. "I think that was my fault. I asked him for something. It wasn't fair of me."

Steve just stared up at her. His mind was empty around the throbbing in his skull. He was just waiting for some answers over here. Any kinda answers. Whatever ones showed up.

Her face crumpled, pain and regret, and she stood back a step to hold a hand out to him carefully. "Come," she said, while he stared at her and absent-mindedly took it. "Let's go upstairs. I'll tell you everything. There's blood on your shirt. We should fix that."

Yeah. Yeah, he supposed they probably should, at that.

He let her fuss over him for a bit. Gracefully, stiltedly, the way she did everything. He caught her arm gently when she had him naked on the end of her bed. He held her eyes, reeled her in. Kissed her, soft and sweet. Her hands came up around his head. He could feel her fangs brush the edge of his tongue. They never so much as nicked him. She cradled him like he was made of glass.

It was slow. Their lovemaking. It was slow, dizzy, languorous. She sat in his lap and moved over him, let him stare up at her blindly. He thought for a few minutes there that she was crying. Neither of them mentioned it. Neither of them dared.

Afterwards, her hand on his chest and her head on his shoulder, she finally let him in on what was tying them both in knots.

"I asked him to keep you safe," she murmured, pressing her palm against his breastbone when he stiffened. "Wait, please. I know it wasn't fair. He would die for you anyway, and you were never the type to play things safe. I know that. I was just ... I was afraid."

"... _Why_?" he asked. Bewildered. Plain bewildered. They'd each almost died about sixteen times since he'd met them. Nearly killed each other, too. They'd made the choice to stick around in spite of that. He didn't know what the hell was scaring the pair of them so badly _now_.

"I had a thought," she whispered, turning her face into his skin. "I had a thought that, if you died, we wouldn't have the chance to bring you back. Your immunity. Even if Aaron was right beside you, he wouldn't be able to bring you back. I thought I'd accepted that. Forty years from now, knowing I would have to say goodbye. But this thought ... It might not be forty years. It might be tomorrow. It might be never. If you died before I could see you. I might never get a chance to say goodbye. It ... It frightened me."

And he couldn't ... he couldn't answer that. He really couldn't. Except ...

"If Aaron got hit with the wrong thing tomorrow," he said slowly. "If somebody shot him full of silver before I could stop them, then I wouldn't be able to bring him back either. Even if both of us were one hundred percent human, or one hundred percent vampire, that still might happen. That ain't about vampire or human. That's just the job."

She was silent for a minute. And then, very softly: 

"I know," she said. "I knew it even as I asked it of him. It wasn't fair. And I think ... I think I hurt him more than I understood. I think he was hurt that I thought I had to ask."

Steve blinked a bit at that one. "Yeah, I guess," he mused. "He's my partner. You're supposed to look out for each other. Man ain't never let me down yet, and I'm pretty damned sure I've given him reason to. You know he saved my life tonight? Again, I mean. I guess if I was him, I'd be a bit upset if somebody thought they had to ask me to take care of my partner too."

She didn't answer that. For a long second, she didn't say anything. He'd have thought she just didn't feel the need to, except he could feel her hand curl gently against his chest. He could feel the tension in her, the weight of something left unsaid. Something she was trying to decide if she _should_ say.

But when it came down to it, Lucy'd never really been one for playing it safe either. They'd never have ended up together if she had.

"It's more than that, I think," she said into his skin. "You have to understand, I've known Aaron for a long time. At first I thought it was just what you said. I don't know if he's ever had a partner before. Definitely none like you." She smiled, he could feel it, and he smiled too. Damn right. But then she continued. More cautiously. "I don't think so anymore, though. Something happened between you. When you dealt with Cross, I think? I'm not completely sure, but I think it's more than partnership now."

Steve ... blinked. Just blinked, for quite a long second. He got where she was going with that. He got the general idea. He just wasn't sure what he was supposed to _do_ with it.

"You think ..." he started, a little incredulously. "You think, what? You think he's in _love_ with me? Aaron Gray. You think we saved each other's lives a bit and he up and falls for my devilish charms?"

She leaned up at that. Drew herself up and sat beside him, staring down at him curiously. "You sound like you don't think it's possible," she noted quietly, stirring her fingertips across his skin. "Do you think it's so hard to fall in love with you?"

He stared at her. Not just a little bit incredulous now. "Is this a vampire thing?" he asked again, kinda helplessly. "Okay, yeah. I'm hot shit. I'm okay with that. But this is _Aaron_ we're talking about. Even if he bent that way, which, I got a dead wife and kids says he doesn't, you really think he goes all that time and then suddenly he gets hung up on _me_? Just, what? Just 'cause I give him proper respect for once? I don't know, I think the man's got more self-respect than that."

Her nails bit suddenly into the skin below his collarbone. He winced, and stared up at her in shock. Lucy glared down at him, her expression hard and rigid once again.

"If he has to wait for all those years to find someone he might trust enough to love again, is that a lack of self-respect?" she hissed coldly. "If he had to wait all that time for someone who would die for him, who would put aside all their hatred and risk their life to help him, is _that_ a lack of self-respect? Which one of you is it, that you have so little opinion of?"

He gaped. Well, he had a right to. Where the _hell_ had that come from?

"... Hey," he said, coming up onto his own elbows as well. Levering himself upright, ignoring the re-emerging throb in his skull to study her. Properly. Sincerely. No more kidding around. "What is this, huh? You really ... Where's this coming from? You almost sound like you _want_ him to be in love with me. Is there something you're not telling me? About you and me? What's going on, Lucy. You're weirding me out over here."

She drew herself up. Raised her chin, imperious and challenging. He was struck for a second how much she looked like Aaron when she did that. He was struck for a second, given the topic at hand, by how much he didn't mind that thought. He did mind other things, though. He minded them one hell of a lot.

"I'm not telling you I've fallen out of love with you, if that's what you mean." He was pretty sure he'd never heard an icier tone from her. Not even when he'd been accusing her of murder. "I'm not saying you should fall in love with Aaron to get over me. I don't want to lose you, though right now I'm not quite sure why not." He winced, and she softened slightly. She touched a hand to his arm. "I'm telling you what I think is happening, that's all. I'm telling you that I think Aaron loves you. I'm telling you that I think I hurt him. I'm telling you that he is as afraid as I am at the thought of your death. I am telling you that I ... that I cannot blame him for that. Nor can I wish him to be hurt."

Her voice wobbled at the end there. Her expression was as remote as ever, but her voice wobbled, and her eyes were shining a bit. Steve stared at her. He stared at her long and hard.

"... You think I should ..." he started, and then stopped again. Tried to wrestle it around so it made some kind of sense. He tried again, slower this time. "You think I should ... let him love me? Try to love him back? You, me, and him. Like that?"

Her expression faltered finally. She slumped, and looked uncertain. "I do not think you should _try_ to love anybody," she said carefully. "You either love them or you don't. But I think ... I think you _do_ love Aaron. At least as a partner. At least enough to die for him. I suppose a part of me wonders ... if you might love him other ways as well. If you ever thought about it."

He opened his mouth. And then closed it again. He didn't know if it was just the headache, just the potential concussion, but there wasn't a single thought in his head right then. There was nothing floating up at all.

"... I'm pretty sure I've never once looked at the guy and thought 'hot damn'," he said at last. Slow and thick as treacle. Bemused. Wondering. "I don't swing that way. I don't _think_ I swing that way. A guy falls in love with you, you'd want to at least give him that much, wouldn't you?"

"You've never thought about it," she prodded gently. The oddest expression on her face. "You'd never thought of many things, before you met us. Met him. If you thought about it now. If you imagined it. Would it repulse you?"

And he ... he tried. He tried to imagine it. Imagine something. Aaron sitting beside them on the bed. Aaron _naked_. It didn't ... it didn't work so good. Not out of revulsion, he just ... it was hard to think of Aaron that way. Naked. Without his clothes, his armour. His self-control. His first thought like that wasn't sex. Not with Aaron. It was wounding. It was the man hurt, bleeding. Half-dead and starving. Driven wild. Trying not to kill him.

Succeeding. Damn near killing himself to do it. Those teeth nearly at his throat, and then the man wrenching himself away. Hammering his way out. Finding someone else, their enemy, to feed his starvation from. 

The memory set his heart thumping his chest all over again. It set his blood pumping all right. And some of that was love, yes. Some of that was amazement, horror, awe. Blind, stupid gratitude. But it wasn't ... That wasn't the same. Not for somebody who might love you. That was _partners_ , it wasn't ...

Would he sleep with the guy? Would he love him and touch him and hold him, the way he held Lucy? He tried to picture it again. To picture Aaron, here. Stiff. Naked. Watching them both with those suspicious eyes of his. It wasn't lust the picture brought. It was ... Hell. He didn't know. Pain. Worry, pain. He couldn't _hurt_ the guy like that. Fuck. He could love him, sure. He could die for him, defend him, try to keep him safe. When he thought it like that, he could imagine holding him, too. Scooping him up, laying him down between him and Lucy. Keeping him safe. But that wasn't lust. It was _love_ , but it wasn't lust.

"It wouldn't have to be fierce," Lucy murmured beside him. Fuck. Was she telepathic now? But no. She'd just seen his expression. She'd always been good at reading him. She'd pinned him from the first. "Not like us. You're right. It's been too long for Aaron. His last memory of love was its loss. Don't imagine passion. Not yet. Imagine gentleness instead. Imagine kisses. Imagine lazy mornings, holding him beside us. Keeping him safe."

"... I could do that," he admitted. More dazedly than anything else. But still ... "That's not enough, though. Is it? A guy loves you, you oughta be able to give him everything. _Anybody_ loves you, you oughta be able to give them everything. Especially if you already love somebody else. You think I could bring him here, have him with us, and not give him everything I give you? You think that'd be _fair_?"

She smiled crookedly at him. Reached up, brushed her fingers across his cheek. "Aaron is not the same as me," she said gently. "I am a passionate being, we both know that. We both _enjoy_ that. Aaron, I think, could be passionate too. But only with time. Only with care. He has been too long alone for anything else. We would have time to get used to the idea. All three of us."

Which ... made sense. It did. And yet.

"... What if I couldn't do it?" Steve asked. Seriously, as seriously as he'd ever asked anything. He reached up, caught her wrist gently. Held it. "I'm serious, Lucy. I ain't never thought about him that way before. I'm having trouble thinking about him that way now. I'm not going to make him promises I can't keep. Not about that. He's been hurt enough. The man watched his family get killed out from under him. He puts his heart out here, I am _not_ hurting it. Not again. I am not gonna do that to him."

"And I wouldn't ask you to," she said, soft and sudden and fierce. "Steven. I wouldn't ask you to. But you do love him. And I think, I am nearly certain, that he does love you as well. And I love you, and I love him as well. As a friend, and ... Well. If I had thought at any point that it would work, I would have loved him other ways as well. He is a good man, Aaron. Like you. He's a beautiful man. He's very easy to love."

Steve blinked at her. He felt his mouth crooking, felt it curl up into a smile. He thought vaguely that he should be jealous right around now. Lucy, talking about loving another man. Wanting to seduce another man. He should have been jealous. He wasn't. Both because she was Lucy, and he knew _all about_ the kind of love and passion she held for him, and also ... also because it was _Aaron_. Because if it came down to it, if that was the way around this turned out to be, if Aaron loved _Lucy_ and Lucy wanted them both ...

He'd be okay with it. It was a weird thing to think, but he would. He might even ... Fuck. He'd even be okay with watching it. Sort of. He wouldn't ... If he could trust Aaron to be _happy_ about it, if he could trust the man to let himself, he'd be okay with it. He'd trust Lucy with him. He'd trust her to keep the man safe.

Which ... was not the way around he should be thinking about that. What the fuck. What was he ... He put his hand up, pressed it to his aching head. Avoiding the stitches. Mostly. Nothing leaked, anyway. He thought he was in the clear, at least there.

The thing of it was. _Right_. The thing of it was ... 

He did love the man. Aaron. He did trust the man. And he did love Lucy. He trusted her, maybe more than he trusted himself. Which ... was maybe the issue here. He trusted _Lucy_ with Aaron. He trusted her to read the man the way she read him, trusted her to know how far to push and how easy to go. Was that it? Was that all it was?

He'd never admired another man before. He'd never desired one. He'd joked, yeah, he'd joked with Phil all the time, but they'd both known he'd never meant it. Being serious for a minute. Thinking about it _properly_. If he looked at his partner. If he looked at Aaron Gray. Physically speaking. Was there anything moving there at all?

Think about kissing, Lucy'd said. There was a whole trust thing here. There was a whole fear and not wanting to hurt anybody thing. So start small. Start easy. Think about kissing him. Imagine what that would feel like.

And he thought ... he thought about hunger. He thought about teeth. He thought about the man, inches from his neck, fighting with himself the whole way. He thought about pain, and strength, and shame. He thought about guiding the man up. About guiding those teeth in towards his lips instead of his throat. About kissing the man. Aaron. About touching him, feeling the hunger of him, and knowing he was safe the entire time.

... Fuck. _Fuck_. Holy shit. Okay. Something moved there. Oh yeah. Something moved all right.

He opened his eyes. He hadn't entirely realised he'd closed them. He opened his eyes, and he found Lucy staring at him. Smiling, panther-eyed. She took in his expression in one hungry swoop of her eyes. Took in his _erection_ too. Holy shit and fuck. What the fuck was he getting himself into around here?

Nothing that would kill him, though. Nothing that would hurt him more than he wanted to be hurt. He trusted them both for that.

"Thinking happy thoughts?" she asked him lightly. Purred at him, leaning over to touch her finger to his lips. He blinked rapidly. Tried to think of an answer to that that came in words instead of ... well. Other things. She laughed, neatly derailing the attempt. She leaned up and kissed him gently. Hungrily. He could feel her teeth. A vampire's teeth. No threat to him at all.

Holy shit, he had a thing for vampires. When he loved them, at least. When he trusted them. He had a thing for teeth and for trust and apparently, male or female, it was enough to be going on with.

It was enough, maybe, to try and offer Aaron.

"Talk to him tomorrow," Lucy whispered. Leaning up, nibbling at his earlobe. Curling her hand protectively across his stitches. "Be gentle with him. He's angry. Afraid. I hurt him very badly. Talk to him. Find out if I am right. When I am, let him see there might be hope."

Steve laughed brokenly. "Fuck, you've got a lot of faith," he prayed, running his hands along her spine. "This is _me_ we're talking about. I pick a fight with the man every ten minutes we're in a room together. I had to get outta the car today before one of us killed the other. You think, what? You think I've got _tact_ over here? Hell, back this up a bit. You really sure the man loves _me_? Of all people?"

"Why not?" she hummed, mouthing gently across his cheeks and nose. "I do. And he hasn't killed you yet, as tactless as you are. Is that not love?"

He laughed again. Just for the hell of it. "Fuck me," he said. "I guess it must be."

And that was, for quite a long while, the last thing either of them said.

He was groggy the next morning. She'd woken him periodically to check for the concussion. Pleasurably, mind you, but even still. He had a headache waking up. He had a great big throbbing pain over his eye. When he made it out of the house, when he made it down onto the front step to wait for Aaron, he had a few minutes to think seriously and incredulously about what the _fuck_ he was thinking of doing. What the hell he was thinking about asking. But he was tired, and he was sore, and he'd made up his mind already. Wrong, right, or lethal if it came to it, he was asking this question now.

And, on the bright side, if Aaron killed him for it, at least he wouldn't have to worry about the headache anymore.

Aaron didn't look particularly murderous when he drove up, though. It was hard to tell behind the sunglasses, but there wasn't any anger when he climbed out of the car, no slammed doors or jerky, powerful movements. He could have been repressing it, mind, but his jaw wasn't clenched either. He didn't look angry. If anything, he looked tired.

"... Hey," Steve said quietly, as the man crunched over the gravel to stand in front of him. Tired, yeah. Exhausted, and maybe ashamed. Ah hell. That wasn't what he'd been looking for. "Hey. You okay, partner? You don't look so good."

Aaron smiled tiredly. He looked down, at his feet, and then back up again. "I owe you an apology," he said. Soft and precise, like always. Steve tried not to flinch a little bit. "I was ... out of line yesterday. I was ... 'jumpy', as you say. I should not have said what I did."

Steve shook his head. "Yeah, no," he said. "It's okay. I get it, it's okay. Me and Lucy had a talk, yeah? She filled me in about some things. I guess I can see where you were coming from. Not saying you were _right_ , mind, but I can see where you were coming from."

Aaron's expression had stiffened a bit, there. At the part about talking with Lucy. About what she'd asked him, presumably, or what they were both afraid of either. His jaw tightened. His chin came up. Like Lucy. Fuck it. Exactly like Lucy.

Steve came down off the front step before he'd thought about it. He came down, stood on the gravel in front of the man. Aaron shifted faintly. Eyed him, that wariness and suspicion the man had never quite lost. Steve felt his lip curl. Felt himself smile, sadly and crookedly. He reached out carefully. Touched the man's arm above his wrist. Aaron stared at him.

"If I'm reading this wrong," Steve said, tired and rueful. "I just want to apologise in advance. I promise you, I swear to _god_ , this ain't a joke. I'm not trying to hurt you. It's just, if I'm wrong, then I really am sorry. Just saying that in advance."

Aaron shook his head abortively. Fully on guard, now, fully worried. He could fling Steve the length of the driveway if he felt like it. Somehow, even now, Steve wasn't worried about that. Aaron opened his mouth. Started to ask, to try and figure out what was going on. Steve pre-empted him. Steve leaned over and kissed that open mouth instead.

Aaron went _rigid_. Absolutely still, absolutely stiff. He froze completely, faint tremors of tension running through the arm in Steve's hand. The man's mouth clicked closed, making Steve very, very glad he hadn't be trying anything more passionate than a gentle kiss hello. He'd have lost his tongue, if he had. They'd avoided that, though. There was just cool lips, for a long second. There was just a dry, trembling mouth under his.

Steve backed up a couple of steps when he pulled away. Let the man have some space, let him have some room to think. To panic, if he was going to. To gear up to try and kill somebody, if that turned out to be his plan. Aaron didn't move, though. He just stared at Steve as he backed away. He just stood frozen and watched with eyes hidden behind his glasses.

"What ..." he started. Very, very carefully. "What was that? Steven. What was that?"

Steve swallowed a bit. Shrugged, smiled lopsidedly. "It, ah," he said. "It was a kiss. Pretty much what it felt like. It was a kiss."

Aaron tilted his head. He really could look very predatory when he put his mind to it. Very still. Very _dangerous_. It wasn't rage running under his voice, though. It was ... It was _something_. Steve didn't even know. It wasn't rage, though. It was something frailer, so much more hollow than that.

"... What is meant by it?" the man asked. Soft. Shaking. Precise. "I am not ... Steven. Please explain."

Fuck. Ah hell. And now that he was faced with it, Steve had no idea _how_. But he owed it. He knew he did. He just had to try and manage.

"Lucy says she's sorry," he started with. Sort of stupidly, but he was going to have to work around to this. Work around, and hope he hadn't made the biggest mistake of his life. After chasing a killer up to room with a single bulb, anyway. He held up his hands. Held them out. Tried to explain. "She, ah. She told me what she asked of you. She said she knew it wasn't fair. She's sorry about that. If we make it inside, she'll tell you that."

Aaron eyed him impassively. "All right," he said. "And ... this is related to kissing me how, exactly?"

Steve grimaced, but bore through. "It is. Sort of. It was just ... she was talking to me. Explaining to me. And she said ... she was talking about how she thought she'd hurt you more than she'd meant. She said she ... she thought she saw something. From you. About me. About death, about me dying. She said she thought ..."

Aaron closed his eyes. It was hard to see behind the sunglasses, it still was, but Steve caught it. Aaron slumped, a fraction, and closed his eyes. Steve moved a little closer again.

"I didn't believe her at first," he said, so carefully. So, so fucking careful. "It's not ... It's hard to think that kind of thing. For me, I mean. You're, you're my partner, it's not ... It's a different thing. I'd die for you, right? But it's not the same thing. I wasn't sure she'd seen what she said. I wasn't sure she could have done."

"... She did," Aaron said. Whispered, really. So quiet Steve only barely heard him. The man's chin came up. Bracing now, bracing for a hit. His chin came up and his eyes opened and he said, more firmly: "She saw. Lucy has always seen too easily. She wasn't wrong."

And that ... Steve half-swayed a bit at that. He felt suddenly dizzy. More than he'd since this whole thing started, head wound or no head wound. That was ... It was one thing to wonder about it, to take a risk on the idea of it, but it _hear_ it ... To hear the man say it. Up front. Like that. All shaking and precise. To hear _Aaron_ say it.

It was real. Holy shit, it was real. Aaron. Aaron loved him. Holy shit.

"Why did you kiss me?" Aaron asked. Very softly. "A test? I would have told you, if you asked. We do not lie to each other anymore. I would not have--"

His voice cut out. Broke. Still softly. Still quietly. Steve was beside him before he knew what he was doing. He was holding the man's shoulders. Looking him, fiercely, as much in the eyes as he could.

"No," he said, hard and fast. "Shit, no. Not like that. Jesus, Aaron. A _test_? Fuck. You think I'm gonna make fun of it like that? Fuck no. Jesus Christ."

A small smile flickered. Just a small one, tentative, but fuck it was good to see it. "I will remind you that I am Jewish," Aaron said softly. "Such oaths don't mean very much to me. I take your point, though. Not ... Not a test, then?"

"No," Steve breathed, shaking his head around his grin. "No, not a test. At least, not of you. I just, I'm not so good at this, yeah? I mean Lucy, Lucy dropped her kit and invited me upstairs. It wasn't hard to interpret that, you know? I figured, I don't know. I figured I'd try the same? Similar, anyway. I ain't dropping my kit out here, mind. I ain't got Lucy's poise."

Aaron's smile faded. Steve knew what this one was, though. He knew before the man opened his mouth. This one he was ready for.

"She knows I'm out here," he pre-empted. Still holding the man by his shoulders. "What, you think I come out here and kiss somebody on her doorstep, and she don't know about it? She knows, Aaron. She's pretty much the one sent me out here. I ... Fuck, it's complicated when I try to explain it, but it's okay. She's okay with it. Point of fact, she was the one tried to talk me into it. As an alongside, rather than instead of, kinda thing?"

Which, yes, they did need to talk about. You didn't just kiss a man and then ask him to hook up with you and your girlfriend, Steve got that. He was planning on that. That wasn't the bit Aaron took issue with, though. That wasn't what put a heavy crease between his brows.

"Talked you into it?" he asked. "This is not ... Steven. You think I would ask you if you didn't want it? This is not a matter of obligation. If you don't--"

Steve cut him off. Quickly. Yeah, okay. Let's not go down there.

"I didn't mean it that way," he said. "I didn't, okay? I wouldn't do that to you either. Like you said. We don't lie to each other anymore. I wouldn't make you a promise I couldn't keep. I wouldn't tell you I wanted something if I didn't. I wouldn't lie to you. Not about that. Whatever else you are, you're my partner. I would _not_ do that to you. Okay? I wouldn't."

"... No," Aaron said, after a long second. Smiling again. Softly and faintly. "No, you would not. I know that. Nor would Lucy. I have known you both long enough to believe that."

Steve breathed out. Laughed, a bit, a giddy little huff. "Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah. Like I know you. Like I _trust_ you. Hell, like I trust Lucy too. And I reckon she must trust us as well. She'd never have suggested this if she didn't."

Aaron tilted his head. "'This'," he repeated softly. "I think we need to talk about 'this', yes? With Lucy as well. I ... have an idea. I have a hope. I would like to know for sure if I am right."

Steve grinned. "I think you probably are," he said, backing up and waving a hand in pre-emptive agreement. "Pretty sure, in fact. You're right, though. We need to talk about it. Hooking up with either one of you, that'd be simple, but this? This is gonna take some planning. I get that. Fuck. I didn't even have the _idea_ until last night. We're gonna need a while to work it out. No arguments there." He paused, though, and then said more carefully: "Just so you know, though. Before anybody starts. I do love you, man. I do trust you, and I would die for you. You're my partner. Whatever else happens, that stays the same, all right? What happened with Cross, that settled that. It ain't changing. Okay?"

Aaron dipped his head, smiled blindly down at his shoes. "Yes," he said. "Yes, that is okay. I would ... say the same. Partner."

And there, finally, Steve let a little of the tension flood out. He reached out. Caught the man's hand, tugged him gently in the direction of the door. Of _Lucy_. Aaron's head came up. His eyes were still mostly hidden, but his hand curled in Steve's, and he followed readily enough. 

"Come on," Steve said. Maybe a little gleefully. "Those reports can wait another little while. We got some talking to do, you and me and Lucy. The paperwork can wait another while."

Aaron chuckled. "Perhaps it can," he noted. "Under the circumstances, I am, as you say, 'all about that'. Yes?"

Steve laughed. "Hell yes, man."

Hell yes.


End file.
